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Generally, I find all the deepfakes and AI use in music today — especially when it comes to deceased artists’ posthumous releases — ethically iffy, if not downright creepy. I’m willing to make an exception for Lyrical Lemonade’s off-the-wall “Doomsday” collab between Juice WRLD and Cordae, though. For one, Juice and Cordae were very tight in real life, and for another, both were extremely close with director Cole Bennett, who was instrumental to both of their careers.

But mostly, it’s because the project came out super tight, which is something you can’t always say for similar works. In this case, we get another opportunity to hear both young rappers at the respective heights of their game — something they got too few chances to give us while Juice was alive — as well as to hear Juice really rapping. Also, the deepfake effect in the video is used in a creative way, allowing Cordae to perform for the both of them as he morphs back and forth between his own face and Juice’s.

Eminem, whose song “Role Model” is sampled here, even makes an appearance at the beginning of the video and his association with Cordae and Juice is just enough to make you wonder whether it’s more digital trickery, or really the man himself showing love to the younger rappers (and Cole, who directed his “Godzilla” video).

Check out the “Doomsday” video above.

Cordae is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

If you travel often enough, you might spot a celebrity or two in the crowd. However, Noel Gallagher took it one step further. To blow off some steam after traveling, the former Oasis guitarist treated fellow nomads to an impromptu performance at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida.

The only problem is no one asked for it or seemingly cared enough to pay attention.. or at least that’s how it looks in the photos. The musician took to social media to joke about the moment on Instagram, writing, “Headlining Carousel two, Palm Beach International Airport, Florida.”

Musician Samantha Whates, who is touring with Gallagher, also shared some photos of the moment.

Gallagher has probably had his fair share of tough crowds over the many decades of his career, but apparently, none as unimpressed as people vacationing in Sunshine State. Although the entertainer’s comment section wished it had happened to them, some even asked him to hit their local airports. Others couldn’t help but let every joke in their mind fly free.

One user chimed in to add the lyrics from Oasis’ 1994 song “Talk Tonight,” “Sittin’ on my own, chewin’ on a bone. A thousand million miles from home.”

Another hilarious inquired about the setlist, posting, “Are you doing “Leaving on a jet plane,” references John Denver’s 1966 track.

It is only but a matter of time before Gallagher’s arch nemesis, brother Liam Gallagher, checks in to poke fun at the moment.

Well, it’s the end of June, which means we’re all halfway through another year. This feels like a good time to stop and look at how things are shaking out. That’s what we’re doing here, taking a moment to run through the best movies we’ve seen so far in 2023. (Check out our list of TV shows here.) The Uproxx staff submitted lists of their Top 10s and used math — 10 points for each top pick, 9 for each number two, and so on — to compile a collective list. You might disagree. That’s fine. Variety makes things fun. Just do not shout at us. That’s really all we ask.

10. Reality

People who knew Sydney Sweeney only from her roles in shows like Euphoria and Everything Sucks saw a different side of her in this project, a feature-length look at the real-life interrogation of Reality Winner, the former government intelligence specialist who was convicted for releasing classified information about Russian interference in the 2016 election. It’s one of those movies that’s not so much a “fun” watch as it is an eye-opening and important one, and it’s a nice reminder that Sweeney has plenty of range beyond “angsty high school student.” Worth checking out if you can stomach it.

9. Air

The big selling point of this movie when it came out was Ben Affleck and Matt Damon together again — as Nike CEO Phil Knight and super-agent David Falk, respectively — in a movie about the sneaker giant wooing a young Michael Jordan. And it was that. Very much. No false advertising here. But focusing too much on all that misses the real point, which is that Viola Davis (as Jordan’s mother, Dolores) and Chris Tucker (as Nike executive Howard White) absolutely run away with this movie in their short bursts on screen. More movies should have Chris Tucker in them. That’s probably the takeaway here.

8. Cocaine Bear

The nice thing here is that there was no false advertising. The movie called Cocaine Bear was indeed about a bear that ate a lot of cocaine and went on a murderous rampage. Which is great. No notes from us about any of this, except maybe to note once shrub that this same real-life story also inspired one of the best seasons of Justified, too. The surprising thing was the talent on hand. This wasn’t some slapped-together cable movie starring washed-up sitcom stars. We had some heavy hitters in here. Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Margo Martindale, O’Shea Jackson, freaking Ray Liotta, all in the movie about the coke-fueled murder bear that was directed by Elizabeth Banks. There are lessons to be learned here. Probably. Maybe. Who knows? Let’s just keep giving animals cocaine and setting them loose in the woods. In movies. Not in real life. Please.

7. M3GAN

It had been a while since we all had a movie about a doll coming to life and killing every human that crosses it, so we were due, in a way. And here came M3GAN, a movie about a creepy doll of the same name who did, uh, exactly that. You saw all the memes and the clips of this thing dancing. It was terrifying. Dolls should not come to life. That is our position on this matter. And if they ever do, well, let’s just go ahead and post the best official policy on these types of things.

Thank you.

6. Polite Society

What we have here:

• A charming action-comedy set at a wedding
• A description that reads as follows: “A martial artist-in-training believes she must save her older sister from her impending marriage. After enlisting the help of her friends, she tries to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood.”
• There’s no need for a third bullet point when the first two are that good

There’s a chance this one slid under your radar so far this year. Please consider remedying that this summer.

5. John Wick: Chapter 4

The franchise that started almost a decade ago with some goons killing Keanu Reeves’ dog wrapped up its main story after globe-trotting adventures and hundreds of revenge killings and creating a style and tone all its own. It’s fun to think about the first part of that sentence sometimes. Everything that happened in these movies — trips to Italy and the Middle East, library fights and numerous discotheque shootouts, glowing neon lights everywhere — stemmed from some kid killing a dog over a car. And, as weird as it feels to say this… thank god he did. Because if he didn’t, we wouldn’t have one of the best pure action franchises of the last 20 years, once that ended with a thrilling and satisfying and sad final chapter.

Silver linings, you know?

4. Alice, Darling

Anna Kendrick carries this movie about a woman in an emotionally abusive relationship and the friends who help her try to escape it. It’s a different kind of role for Kendrick, especially if you’re familiar with her from quirky and fun comedies like Pitch Perfect, but it’s one she takes on well. Very rarely will seeing someone on a paddle board feel like such a victory. That’s the nice thing about movies, though.

3. Sanctuary

Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott star in this movie about a dominatrix and a sad rich boy circling each other like cobras in a fancy hotel, with blackmail and safe words and domineering fathers and plans for succession and all of it. It’s quite a ride, both on paper and on the screen. But it’s also a good movie, one that gets to the nature of human relationships and the way parents can leave scars on children way below the surface. It’s a lot, to be sure, and disturbing in places, but top-notch performances by the two leads make this a compelling watch.

2. Past Lives

In another, lesser movie, Past Lives would be about “childhood sweethearts who reconnect 20 years later and realize they were meant for each other,” as one character puts it. But the A24 film is more refreshingly complex than that. Featuring masterful performances from Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro and an Oscar-worthy script from director Celine Song, Past Lives explores the full spectrum of romance, from youthful crushes to marriage to what-could-have-beens, told over decades. It’s the most emotionally mature movie of 2023 — and one of the best, too.

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

The first Spider-verse movie was a surprise, a visually stunning and heartfelt look at the world of Spider-things that we thought we were all familiar with until it took us deep into multiple universes populated with multiple Spider-men. This film, the long-awaited sequel, was a surprise, too, in a different way. Here the shocking part was just that they managed to take a leap from the already-great first movie, crafting a sequel that built from the foundation and extended out to new and exciting places. There were cameos galore and animation sequences that could melt your brain a little and, yes, another story that rips open a little hole in your heart and crawls inside to stay there for a while. It’s kind of crazy that these movies work as well as they do. But they definitely do. Comic book movies have been dragged through the mud a little lately, not always for undeserving reasons, but this one right here…

This one is special.

Cinematic literacy has never been a strong suit for conservatives. Case in point: A bizarre new video posted by the Ron DeSantis super PAC, Never Back Down, shows the Florida governor’s head on Obi-Wan Kenobi during the climactic scene for the Star Wars prequel Revenge of the Sith. Donald Trump also appears as the severely beaten Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader who’s missing several limbs and burning alive after being beaten by his Jedi master, now portrayed by DeSantis.

The strange clip leaves all of the original dialogue intact, however, which doesn’t make a lick of sense. You can watch below:

Via Mediaite:

“You were the chosen one,” says Kenobi, or in this case DeSantis.

“It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them. Bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness,” he continues, before Vader — or Trump — screams, “I hate you!”

The context of the scene has barely any connection to Trump and DeSantis. The former president being heralded as a conservative champion who would bring the Republican Party to glory? Sure, that kinda plays. The whole thing falls apart after that though.

For starters, DeSantis never mentored Trump, who was definitely not a Meatball Ron apprentice. On top of that, while Obi-Wan technically defeats Anakin in their fiery lightsaber duel, the Jedi master ultimately loses. He’s forced into exile for the next 19 years while Anakin becomes the iconic, helmeted version of Darth Vader who becomes even more powerful as he rules the Empire with an iron fist.

To quote Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi, “This is not going to go the way you think.”

(Via Mediaite)

The Lauren Boebert-Marjorie Taylor Greene feud has gone next level after a bathroom fight last year for the former congressional BFFs. This week, Greene called Boebert a “little b*tch” right to her face on the House floor. Greene also alleged that Boebert “copied” her Biden-focused articles of impeachment.

From there, Greene quadrupled down and told Semafor that Boebert “has genuinely been a nasty little b*tch to me” and that there was no hope for reconciliation. Whereas Boebert attempted to take the high road by telling HuffPost, “I’m not in middle school” while denying the “copying” accusation. As The Daily Beast notes, Boebert aimed for the same route with Hannity, below, although one must wonder if she feels differently behind the scenes. Here’s the Hannity clip, and we’ll discuss below.

“Sean, I did not put my life on pause and leave my four boys and my now grandson to come here and just get in spats with people, I came here to legislate and to be effective for Coloradans … Marjorie is not my enemy. Joe Biden’s policy, the Democrats, that is my enemy that I am combatting right now and I am doing everything I can to make sure I put them in check and hold them accountable and take our country back from this radical extremism that we are seeing.”

So yes, high road was the target here, but is there a twist?

Politico has pointed towards infighting within the Freedom Caucus, for which both Boebert and Greene are members. Currently, anyway. In a discussion from the group on who should be purged, “two members” are reportedly pushing for Greene to get the boot. The purported reason for this would be Greene’s alignment with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (who she supported for speaker and who recently let her preside over the House), who obviously isn’t a far-enough right of a move for the Freedom Caucus to approve.

The timing of the ousting-in-process sounds about right, however, for this to have received fuel from the “little b*ch” insult even if the officially stated motivation ends up being Greene’s support of McCarthy. And it sure would be something if we found out that the “two members” were Boebert and Matt Gaetz. He has been infighting with Greene (over McCarthy) as well, and Insider reported that she recently took a verbal swing at him while dubbing herself as “the leading MAGA voice in Congress.”

Man, these people.

(Via The Daily Beast, Politico & Insider)

Hot Union Strike Summer continues unabated.

With 50 days of striking under their belt, the WGA continues to hold firm in their demands to protect wages and ensure humans won’t be replaced by robo-writers who start every screenplay with “FADE IN: As an AI language model, Sam wakes up groggy in his hotel bed, slapping the snooze button on his blaring alarm clock.”

To show his support for the WGA strike, Dermot Mulroney walked out in the middle of his interview on The View, a pre-taped segment that will air today as-is. According to Variety, Mulroney plugged Secret Invasion and chatted a bit about his career before politely bailing to, as the actor explained to the hosts, “symbolically walk off in support of the writers.” A pretty solid example of eating your cake and having it, too.

He picked an excellent venue for it. The View is notably (largely) unscripted, which allows the hosts to make waves and say some headline-grabbing statements, and most of the staff are not union. Mulroney said in a statement, “Since I have such respect for The View, a news program with a heart, it was there that I felt comfortable enough to draw attention to the ongoing WGA strike for fair wages and working hours, as I find it incredibly important to continue to support the union.”

If you’re interested in Mulroneying, you can find ways to support the WGA strike here.

(via Variety)

Blink-182 probably didn’t expect to be part of the narrative surrounding the missing OceanGate submersible, and yet, they are. Brian Szasz — the stepson of British billionaire Hamish Harding, who was on the Titanic voyage — generated some attention by attending a Blink show while the fate of the submarine was uncertain. Szasz wrote at the time, “It might be distasteful being here but my family would want me to be at the Blink-182 show as it’s my favorite band and music helps me in difficult times!”

It appears that amid all this, Szasz actually got a message from Blink drummer Travis Barker.

On his Instagram Story yesterday (June 22), Szasz shared a screenshot of a supposed Insta DM from Barker, in which the artist writes, “Praying for you and your family [folded hands emoji].” Szasz responded across two messages, “Thank you. I will be at the Sd show tonight.”

Szasz recently faced some criticism from Cardi B, who didn’t think he should have gone to the Blink concert. He fired back, “@iamcardib What a pos trashy celeb. Cardi B trying to get clout off me and my families suffering. I went to a Blink 182 concert for coping rather than sitting at home and watching the news. Shame on you Cardi get some class!”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Last fall, Carly Rae Jepsen unveiled The Loneliest Time, her sixth studio album. She’s already back with a new single titled “Shy Boy,” a giddy, overflowing pop anthem that’s immediately pulls the listener into its party: “You’re pretty, we’re drinking / So I say what I’m thinking / How come everybody’s dancing but you?”

The singer was teasing the track all week and it precedes her tour with Boygenius. It’s produced by James Ford and comes with a whole music video. She also has a forthcoming tour in Japan this summer and a slot at the Glastonbury Festival alongside acts like Lizzo, Arctic Monkeys, and Lana Del Rey.

In December, Jepsen shared the theme song for Hello Kitty: Super Style! on Amazon Kids+. About it, she told Uproxx in an interview, “I think it is mostly joyful and playful and realizing that fashion can be fun. It can help bring confidence, but the main confidence you always find in yourself. I think that’s really important to know. I think Hello Kitty is about kindness and I love that messaging. It’s something that the world needs a lot of and it’s a message that kids can learn.”

Watch the video for “Shy Boy” above.

Aqua was right: we are living in a Barbie world.

One of the most anticipated (and important) movies of 2023 is being released next month, and with it comes slumber party screenings, limited-edition pink lunchboxes, and viral posters.

A French poster for Barbie features Margot Robbie as Barbie looking triumphant and being held by Ryan Gosling as Ken, giving off unprecedented amounts of “Ken-ergy.” There’s also a tagline — “Elle peut tout faire. Lui, c’est juste Ken,” or in English, “She can do everything. He’s just Ken” — that has a “double-entendre meaning in French slang,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. “Ken” is slang for “f*ck” in French, so to someone in Paris, the poster reads, “She knows how to do everything. He just knows how to f*ck.”

The wordplay was likely intentionial.

Many began to suspect the poster’s NSFW message was a deliberate act of guerrilla marketing. A closer look at the tagline seems to confirm this. The original, English Barbie tagline is: “Barbie is everything. He’s just Ken.” But the French translation of the first line isn’t “Barbie est tout” (“Barbie is everything”), the literal translation, but rather “[Barbie] peut tout faire” (“Barbie can do anything”), a line that feeds nicely into the slang-y Ken line with the dirty connotations.

“It’s definitely deliberate; there’s no way a French speaker wouldn’t have noticed the dirty pun,” a French marketing executive told the Hollywood Reporter. “It’s sort of genius, really, that they slipped that in.”

So, it’s confirmed: Ken f*cks. Even if it’s unclear what he f*cks with.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

Taylor Swift’s Taylor’s Version series of re-recorded albums have been a massive hit, and fans might have Kelly Clarkson to thank for that: Back in 2019, she tweeted, “@taylorswift13 just a thought, U should go in & re-record all the songs that U don’t own the masters on exactly how U did them but put brand new art & some kind of incentive so fans will no longer buy the old versions. I’d buy all of the new versions just to prove a point.”

Clarkson doesn’t want to take credit for the idea to re-record the albums, though, as she told Andy Cohen in an interview, “She’s brilliant, she would’ve come up with that on her own, and she maybe already had before I even tweeted it.”

She also spoke about how, her perspective, it looked like Scooter Braun, who bought Swift’s master recordings, may have taken offense to her suggestion. Clarkson said:

“I think Scooter took offense to it, because we ran into each other, and I think he reached out at the time to my manager. I was like, ‘It wasn’t anything against him.’ I just… when she came out and said that and I heard about it, I was like, ‘Whatever. Re-record them. Your fans will support you.’ Uh, they did! She has like every top record right now in the charts.

He didn’t say anything to me. I think he called my manager at the time, I heard, and I don’t know what happened or what was said, but I think he thought I was attacking him. I was like, ‘I honest to God didn’t even realize who had the [rights].’ I didn’t even know all the information. All I heard was, ‘Man, I really want to own,’ and I was like, ‘Man, that song… She writes everything. It’s so important to her. She’s a businesswoman.’ It felt wrong that she didn’t have the opportunity, right? That’s the thing: If you have the opportunity and you choose to not pay that much money, that’s one thing, but to not have the opportunity to own something that is really important to you [is another].”

Clarkson, by the way, has a new album, Chemistry, out today (June 23).

Check out the interview clip above.

Kelly Clarkson is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.